All Weeds Subject To Search And Detention
Now Playing: The Faces--"Too Bad"
My friend Sara's bithday was this past weekend, and she decided to invite her friends to spend it weed-pulling, to which we all enthusiastically assented. "Weed-pulling" sounds a little prosaic, I suppose. The actual event involved purging a variety of invasive species from the prairie and trailheads at the Leslie Science Center in northern Ann Arbor. This latter, where I'd never been before, is a very interesting multi-purpose educational facility, with nature walks, community garden plots, and even a disabled raptor care center. Invasive species are a pretty big deal, especially in the Great Lakes region ("taking our jobs and our women, etc.") where they crowd out native plant and animal life (most nastily in the lakes themselves, where the sea lamprey is cutting bloody swathes through the native fish population in general) and negatively impact the local environment. So they gotta go, basically.

The day opened misty, chill and rainy, and I was worried the whole thing might have been called off, but relaxed once the rain passed over and left the cool behind, which in turn made for a climatically gorgeous day. I'd somehow gotten it into my head that the event started at noon when in fact it was at two, and so killed an hour or so wandering the trails through tree-shrouded carpets of wild geraniums and fierce barricades of brambles and prairie grass. It's a great area, one I'll have to check out a lot more often. A healthy knot of people materialized, we all wished Sara a happy birthday, and then, aided by our trusty guides Bill and Billy, set to work. This had apparently been the first time anyone had ever wanted to do this for their birthday...

Our primary target was "dame's rocket", a long, leafy shoot with pleasant pinkish-violet flowers on the end. The course of my life had turned me forever away from flower gardening, and the few times I've ever tried to grow plants have been... unsuccessful, to say the least. Frankly, I'm not all that interested in them unless they're edible. It turned out, however, as Billy told us, that dame's rocket was. I, Laura, and Sara's friend Jen, working with Billy, effectively denuded the prairie of dame's rocket in a couple of hours, save for one stubborn patch protected by impenetrable brambles. Seeing all those plants lying in the back of the truck, however invasive they might have been, made me realize I need to find a way to use them by the next time I do this (which could be soon!). I'd been meaning since I first moved to town to go to the mustard garlic-pulling sessions at the Arb, so I need to do some more research on these and start putting some salads together.

Afterwards, we all did the stuff together I'd done when I first came (but this was with people who knew what they were talking about, which always helps). We did the trails, during which Billy showed us where to find trilliums, wild ginger, jack-in-the-pulpit, and the ever-pervasive geraniums, and Tracey gave me her inimitable take on Inland Empire ("Mary Steenburgen? How can I be afraid of her???"). Then it was over to the raptor area, where we got to see criminally adorable saw-whet and screech owls being fed dead mice, and barred and great horned owls just sort of sitting there like great feathered lumps. They did look a little forlorn, but I expect they probably get their fill of us whenever the kids show up on school trips (as I reckon they do).

By that time, everyone was famished, and I was pleased to find what an honest hunger I'd worked up simply through all that prairie maintenance. Margot and Adam dropped me off at my place so I could give them the quiche provencale I'd baked for Sara and take a badly needed shower. I rushed over to Leopold's, and the next five hours really put the finishing touch on a fantastic day. Beer was knocked back, board games were played, roleplaying games and their devotees were alternately mocked and celebrated, I finally tried the wonderful lime chicken quesadilla, great conversations (of both a comic and serious nature) were had... it was one of my favorite ever days in Ann Arbor (certainly the best one so far this year; I'm starting to collect these, I think, in my mind, so that they'll help me through the rough patches). For a week with so much relative disappointment, it had some fantastic bookends... Chicago, Katie's graduation, the Leslie Science Center, Sara's birthday, and Leopold's. You can maybe beat that, I suppose, but it beats a whole fuck of a lot else.

Thanks Sara, Margot, Adam, Tracey, Dan, Amy, Nicole, Jon, Laura, Dug, Jason, Billy, Bill, Greg, Brooke, Eric, Karen, Karen's Jason, Brian Marcus, David, and Sparky! Full table, that.